Chris Metzger Email & Phone Number

Chicago, Il, Us

Chicago, Illinois, Us

• Recruited into the experiential marketing collective by its CEO to rebuild & level up its client development practice and play a key role in remapping the agency’s post-pandemic workforce.• Reimagined the agency’s point of view for life sciences — distilling learnings from the pandemic into a series of transformative science & medically focused strategies for clients, ultimately repositioning the agency for further expansion.• Spearheaded strategy for the USPS’s return to in-person exhibiting — leading a design thinking charrette for the marketing & sales leadership to curate and deliver a top-ten ranked experience at CES that resulted in the most leads & sales in USPS history and 10% account growth for the agency

Whitinsville, Massachusetts, Us

• Recruited by the healthcare-focused experience design agency as a strategic hire to elevate account management & sales — pivoting from a project-oriented / transactional approach to a proactive strategy of consulting clients at a higher-level with thought leadership and omnichannel solutions to drive growth.• Transitioned the agency to a new go-to-market strategy, introducing enhanced processes, best practices, and measurement across all BD and client service operations — improving accountability, performance, and clearly mapping the path to targeting & capturing opportunity in the healthcare segment.• After assuming full-team-accountability, molded its 30 members into a self-sustaining group of highly-skilled performance planners and strategic partners — successfully solidifying multiple relationships with new brands and expanding AORs with the agency’s largest clients, Biogen and Amgen.

Dallas, Texas, Us

• Promoted beyond sales leadership into an expanded role, serving as an industry thought leader and brand evangelist while stepping up as a member of the agency’s core steering committee in defining new methodologies for driving growth and efficiency.• Collaborated closely with leadership across the organization to implement the principles of design thinking and strategic account management — rearchitecting all strategy, design, client servicing, and project management capabilities, procedures, and guidelines to enable scalable, future growth.• Led the launch of a formal healthcare practice, cross-functionally restructuring the organization to define, establish, and rollout vertical-focused strategic advisory and consultancy services — powering new growth from existing clients and winning a $5M AOR relationship with Shire Pharmaceuticals.

Dallas, Texas, Us

• Based on success, promoted to become a senior sales leader — driving growth and management of key AOR relationships, cultivating / expanding the new business portfolio, and playing a key role in expanding the company’s service offering.• Built and grew a profitable book of business — delivering $20M from existing accounts while opening and winning new domestic and international engagements from Novartis, AstraZeneca, Cardinal Health, and Eli Lilly, among others.• Helped round out the agency’s full-service offering with the launch of a new outsourced convention management service — formalizing a high-impact capability for clients to streamline their end-to-end event strategies and securing multiple clients within 90 days.

Dallas, Texas, Us

• Recruited into the top privately-held experiential marketing company to accelerate business development within its newly-formed corporate accounts team — helping transition the portfolio from a transactional approach to a mix of high-volume strategic partnerships.• Engaged senior leadership of existing client Cardiac Sciences, transitioning an ad hoc project-based relationship into a long-term strategic partner — capturing efficiencies for the client and expanding annual agency revenue from the account by 25%.• Opened and developed a key relationship with Sanofi, repositioning Freeman’s offering as a unified cross-functional capability to land the $12M AOR relationship — collaborating with the client to successfully execute its consolidation from six vendors to one and generating 20% account growth within 12 months.

• Based on new business success, promoted to step into an account leadership role — working with leadership to build and develop a corporate implementation program and successfully developing new strategic national relationships with brands across financial services, healthcare, CPG, and technology.• Built and implemented a game-changing BD strategy around early-stage & pre-IPO startups — closing complete tradeshow marketing programs with Red Hat and VA Linux, driving 20% IT sector growth, and winning the award for top annual sales performer.• Opened and negotiated several seven-figure multinational experiential marketing & activation programs for Amex, CDW, Dade Behring, Qwest Communications, Alcon Laboratories, and Harley-Davidson — leading an end-to-end cross-functional collaboration to logistically manage and execute on a global scale.

• Brought on by the market-leading exhibit-house and experience design agency as an initial member of its first formal Business Development team, quickly proving value as a top national sales producer — delivering 200% of quota within 12 months of hire.• Within Y1, generated multi-million-dollar strategic relationship with emerging ice cream brand, Blue Bunny — partnering closely with its senior leadership to harness the power of experiential to transform from a regional market supplier into a nationally-recognized brand.

Chicago, Il, Us

• Entered career, joining the largest privately-held association management company as a revenue-generating member of its newly-formed tradeshow department — receiving a masterclass in all functional aspects of the tradeshow industry and development of in-person & online marketing experiences. • Uncovered, secured, and managed numerous domestic / international event exhibition, sponsorship, and logistics opportunities with clients in IT-related industries — delivering a 30% lift in space sales and 47% revenue growth for a 42,000 sq. ft. IT trade show.• Creatively drove growth and success with clients across a wide industry footprint through digital and offline — developing and securing content development & early website design engagements for multiple associations and sponsorships for corporate clients, including Oracle, SAP, IBM, and Broadcom.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:SUCCESS ARCHITECTOpened, negotiated, and led the end-to-end execution of 4,000+ audience-first experiential & digital programs, strategies, and activations — personally contributing and steering $500M+ in total revenue across career.EXPERIENCE TESTEDComprehensive background of successful experience translating creative vision into high-profile brands, events, and multi-channel programs while leading cross-functional teams of 30+ business developers, client managers, strategists, creatives, and production staff.STRATEGIC BUSINESS DRIVERProven ability to develop & grow highly-effective creative organizations and business development / account teams — leveraging complimentary skillsets, proven collaborative methods, and deep practical knowledge to deliver results.TRUSTED LEADER & ADVISORBig picture thinker adept at steering high-level vision while simultaneously digging into the details at the project level — with a sharp focus on short-term goals, long-term strategy, and ROI.BRAND FOOTPRINT: AEROSPACE & DEFENSE | Boeing | ASSOCIATIONS | American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) ▪︎ American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) ▪︎ American Diabetes Association (ADA) ▪︎ American Heart Association (AHA) ▪︎ Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) | ENTERTAINMENT | Playboy Enterprises | FINANCIAL SERVICES | Amex | FOOD & BEVERAGE | Blue Bunny | HEALTHCARE & MEDICAL | Alcon Laboratories ▪︎ Bausch Healthcare ▪︎ Baxter Healthcare ▪︎ Cardiac Sciences ▪︎ Dade Behring (now Siemens) ▪︎ Hospira (now Pfizer) ▪︎ National Institute of Health (NIH) | MOTOR VEHICLES | Harley-Davidson | PHARMACEUTICALS | AstraZeneca ▪︎ Amgen ▪︎ Biogen ▪︎ Cardinal Health ▪︎ Eli Lilly ▪︎ Gilead ▪︎ GSK ▪︎ Novartis ▪︎ Regeneron ▪︎ Sanofi ▪︎ Shire Pharmaceuticals (now Takeda) ▪︎ Teva | TECHNOLOGY | Broadcom ▪︎ CDW ▪︎ Dade Behring ▪︎ Dell ▪︎ IBM ▪︎ Oracle ▪︎ Qwest Communications ▪︎ Red Hat ▪︎ SAP ▪︎ VA Linux